Why Wait a Month for a Sofa That’s Not Even What You Wanted?

Edgar Blazona, founder of BenchMade Modern, one of several new furniture companies courting customers, increasingly millennials.Credit
Alanna Hale for The New York Times

During dinner-party conversation, Edgar Blazona kept hearing complaints about the drudgery of buying furniture. Long delivery times. Lack of choice.

So in the spring of 2015, he started a furniture company, BenchMade Modern, to make custom sofas on demand.

Sofa lengths can be set by the customer in one-inch increments. The company also offers dozens of colors, fabric swatches and full-size paper printouts of sofas to let customers see how the pieces will look and fit in their homes.

The BenchMade Modern factory in Los Angeles tracks the construction process, gives customers live online updates and provides free delivery. The typical turnaround time for production is seven days.

“I wanted to take away customers’ frustrations,” said Mr. Blazona, a former Pottery Barn designer whose company now has 16 employees. “With big furniture retailers, you can buy sofas in a few sizes and colors, and they’re shipped in two to four weeks.”

As retailers like Ikea and Crate & Barrel lose their luster among some shoppers, a range of furniture start-ups like BenchMade Modern see an opportunity. They are courting customers, increasingly millennials, who want unique furniture that will last. And fast delivery becomes increasingly important as more online retailers offer shorter delivery times for all types of goods.

BenchMade Modern, based in San Francisco, is already breaking even, Mr. Blazona said. To keep costs low, he is using a hybrid store model, in which furniture is sold online and in a showroom in the Mission District of San Francisco. To speed the process, orders are sent directly to the factory.

Technology is making it easier, and cheaper, to offer made-to-order.

“The days of the megafurniture store are gone,” said Mr. Blazona, who designed his eight-piece sofa collection in a clean, Modernist style. “They’re very expensive to run. And customers get overloaded with too many choices.”

Mr. Blazona had experience in the industry. He began another Modernist furniture firm, TrueModern, in 2005, which he still owns.

BenchMade Modern has raised $800,000 from six angel investors. The company is raising an additional $1 million from venture capitalists to finance factory improvements.

“The furniture industry is old dog,” Mr. Blazona said. “I had to start my own U.S. factory to fix this,” he added, referring to the manufacturing process.”

Jason Hancock fits the profile of the customer these start-ups are trying to attract. He was looking for two sofas that could fit into his and his wife’s new home in San Francisco. He said he first researched West Elm and Room & Board offerings.

Mr. Hancock, an advertising account manager, heard about BenchMade Modern via word of mouth. He bought from the firm because of the custom sizes that could fit into a long space. The short delivery time and comparable prices were also big selling points.

“I’d rather buy from a smaller company,” said Mr. Hancock, “because you feel like you’re part of the process.” He added that he was impressed that Mr. Blazona personally called him to confirm the furniture order.

Leura Fine, founder and chief executive of the online interior design site Laurel & Wolf, said that millennials are creative and want their homes to be special, which is driving interest in such small brands. Her site features more than 800 designers who work with customers online for a flat rate.

“The days of walking into Pottery Barn and buying a whole bedroom suite” are gone, Ms. Fine said. “There’s also a huge appetite for customization.”

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The lower barriers to entry are also prompting more design-driven furniture businesses. John Humphrey started Greycork in Rhode Island in 2013 with a mission of offering well-designed furnishings made from high-quality woods like Baltic birch from Scandinavia or Russia and American ash. Four Greycork designers are Rhode Island School of Design graduates. The furniture can be assembled by consumers in minutes. The company also offers free shipping and free 60-day trials.

Mr. Humphrey, a former analyst at a venture capital firm, expects Greycork revenue to reach $1 million this year. His goal is to scale up quickly, as Warby Parker did, by offering affordable pieces. He is offering a coffee table for $185.

His online financing campaign via Indiegogo set out to raise $50,000 and ended up with just over $270,000. Since then, he has raised another $2 million from venture capital and angel investors.

The company, he said, was particularly focused on attracting millennials, a growing consumer market of those ages 18 to 34. “The opportunity is very large,” he said. “We’re creating a brand that speaks to millennials.”

Millennials became the largest furniture consumer group in the United States in 2014, according to Fung Business Intelligence research. Their spending on furniture increased 142 percent from 2012 to 2014.

But while the start-ups have opportunities in the market, they are facing production issues. Greycork’s far-flung furniture supply chain, Mr. Humphrey said, was difficult to manage as wood was shipped from Russia and fabric imported from China for pieces assembled in the southeastern United States. “We’re working down the learning curve,” he said.

Some furniture start-ups have set their sights on the typical Ikea customer.

Brad Sewell, a former Apple engineer, started Campaign Living last year. It is taking preorders and aims to offer furniture with simple lines and deliver it in three to five days. The affordable furnishings can be assembled in a few minutes without tools and easily repacked in two boxes. An armchair, for example, sells for $495.

Campaign Living, which has three employees, has raised over $1 million in seed money, said Mr. Sewell, whose company is based in Emeryville, Calif. “Everyone needs a place to sit,” he said. “So there’s enough space for everyone to exist.”

His offerings don’t fit into the “disposable furniture” category that many young people may be accustomed to. He spent a year creating prototypes. He said he had tested furniture frames using hydraulic cylinders in Detroit that simulated the load of a 250-pound human.

Furniture frames are made from laser-cut steel. The legs are crafted from sustainable woods from the Midwest. Particle board is banned. He said he hoped his furniture would be handed down through generations.

The offbeat signature styles of some of the new designers may never be a huge part of the $96 billion furniture industry, but start-ups are finding ways to reach their target audiences with them.

Akron Street, a small New York company founded by two designers, Hansley Yunez and Lulu Li, has also offered up easy-to-assemble pieces. Its 12-piece furniture line, which went on sale last summer, is made with white oak from Appalachia. A solid wood coffee table, for instance, is $295.

The company began with a $140,000 family loan. Since then, the founders have bootstrapped the financing. They designed the website themselves, and advertising and marketing are done by word of mouth or on Craigslist. The furniture showroom is the couple’s East Village apartment in New York City.

Already, the company has a waiting list for some furniture pieces.

“People may not want all the same furniture,” said Mr. Yunez, who is also courting millennials. “It’s about creating a sense of identity.”

A version of this article appears in print on October 27, 2016, on Page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: My Divan Is Divine! Well, It Is What You Ordered. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe